Cerebus #20: Mind Game

Cerebus #20 (September 1980)
Cover Preliminary Sketch and Final Cover

Art by Dave Sim

Via Brian Copolla at Comic Art Fans

Cerebus #20: Assembled Mind Game Montage

(click image to enlarge)

Via The Glass Walking Stick

THE GLASS WALKING-STICK BLOG:
(from Reading Comics The Hard Way article, posted 20 August 2014)

...Cerebus has been drugged by the Cirinists ( an all-female cult whose apparent purpose is "to wipe out fun in our lifetime" ) and finds himself, or his consciousness, floating in the mystical realm of the Seventh Sphere, also the hangout of Illusionist guru and 182-year old hippie Suenteus Po. The aardvark plays the two cults off against each other in attempt to return to reality  -  although by the end of the issue he doesn't seem to have succeeded. This was all a fine introduction to Dave Sim's cantankerous, controversial character for me, and to Sim's mastery of witty dialogue and expressive cartooning. But ( there's always a "but", isn't there? ) the experimental storytelling caught me by surprise. The Seventh Sphere (which is the background for every scene ) is depicted as a black void with areas of "shimmering grey" and the only character visible throughout the story is Cerebus, manipulating the unseen cultists as he wanders through the darkness. The grey areas are actually a portrait of Cerebus, chopped up and spread throughout the 20 pages of story, with the smaller images of the aardvark pasted on top...

Dave Sim with the assembled Mind Game montage

Aardvarks Over UK Tour '93

Photo via Page 45

DAVE SIM:
(from Swords Of Cerebus Vol 4, 1983)

...The idea was inspired by Neal Adams' "hidden head" trick which (as far as I know)  he only did twice: once on a BEN CASEY Sunday page and once in a Deadman story in STRANGE ADVENTURES. The principle of the idea was that unrelated background and foreground elements make up the giant head. It's an exercise in the thinking side of drawing, since the initial layout has to be conformed to, and the composing elements must retain enough individual identity to still communicate the scene in each individual panel.

The very idea that someone who is basically just employed to communicate story elements in sequential pictures would walk that extra mile for the sake of artistic integrity impresses the hell out of me.

It also induces great guilt, which should not be discounted out of hand as a motivating factor.

Here I am, freed of all artistic constraints, my income being directly tied to the sales of the book I draw, and I haven't come up with a single idea like the "hidden-head page". That was when I decided to take it a step further and do a hidden full figure, life-size of Cerebus... Any way, Cerebus' mental acrobatics seemed like the best way to kick off the endless complications and intrigues to come. The Illusionists versus the Cirinists in Togith. Pictures within pictures illustrating the story within the story.

The title "Mind Game" was freely swiped from John Lennon's "Mind games" and is respectfully dedicated to his memory.